Pros: • Great layout of PCI-E and PCI slots. • Onboard SATAIII 6.0Gbps and USB 3.0. • The BIOS lets you retain multiple profiles, which makes it less of a hassle to tweak settings -- if something doesn't work right, you can restore one of your other profiles instead of the defaults. • Brilliant little pin headers for front panel connections: plug all those individual cables into the pin header first, then the pin header plugs into the motherboard. This really simplifies the build. • SATA ports face sideways, which keeps the cables out of the way of expansion cards and lets you easily hide them behind the HDD holder. • The black-and-blue design looks great in a black case, such as the Lian-Li PC-P50WB. • There was a helpful sticker over the RAM slots that let me know to use the black slots if populating only 3 slots; saved me the trouble of looking in the manual.

Cons: • The SATA controllers show their own info screens during bootup, which makes booting take longer. I disabled the eSATA controller to reduce this, as I never use eSATA. • The default BIOS settings didn't seem to provide power to the PCI slots when shut down; my i-RAM was losing its data. I was able to correct this by tweaking the BIOS settings. • The descriptions in the right sidebar of the BIOS are rarely informative, and the included manual was somewhat incomplete; however, I found MSI's full PDF manual online that had all the details. • Corsair XMS3 1333 RAM defaulted to 1066 speed; this was very easy to change in the BIOS. • Only 3 case fan power ports, and my case has 4 large fans. This was easily solved with a 12V adapter, but I would have rather had all case fans speed-controlled.

Overall Review: This is my first MSI motherboard, and I am very happy with it. The board has a great layout, many smart design decisions, and all the features I was looking for. It's been totally reliable so far (but I've only had it for a couple weeks). I just wish the BIOS setup screens were more informative. Other components in my build: Intel Core i7-930 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333 Nvidia GeForce GTX465 1GB 2 x Hitachi 1TB 7200rpm SATAII (not in RAID) Gigabyte i-RAM (PCI) + 4GB DDR-400 (swap file drive) Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic (PCI) Antec TPQ-850 PSU Lian-Li PC-P50WB case

Pros: Large drive, USB 3 interface.

Cons: The drive simply disappears from the computer's device list, usually after a few days but sometimes within a few hours; the enclosure's SATA-USB bridge seems to be at fault. I eventually got fed up and pried open the enclosure (not easy) to snag the bare drive, and put it in a MacAlly enclosure. No more disappearing device that way!

Overall Review: HGST's internal drives have always been reliable for me, so it was surprising to have such a bad experience with this external drive.

Pros: The one that works is a great little Linux box.

Cons: Had such a good experience making a Linux workstation out of one these that I bought a second to replace my server/router. I foolishly assumed it would go just as smoothly and didn't put the thing together for almost a month. My mistake. Second unit is entirely DOA, no activity whatsoever upon pressing power button.

Overall Review: Somehow just under a month is outside NewEgg's return policy now. Obscene. This is my last NewEgg purchase. I might use your site for looking up specs but you won't get the sale anymore.

Pros: * Great specs: 6-core i7, RTX 2070, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD. * Ethernet, HDMI, and several USB-A ports so you won't need to carry dongles. * Can access BIOS settings with F2 at boot. Many other laptops annoyingly prevent this. * Bright non-glossy (matte) 1080p@144Hz display is perfect for 15" size. * Slim display bezel with top-mounted webcam. * 24-bit/192KHz analog stereo output on headphone jack and speakers. * Nice touchpad with physical click along bottom and multi-touch (two-finger scrolling). * Surprisingly lightweight, and runs cool and quiet during typical non-gaming use. * Sleek unbranded dark grey look. * Per-key customizable RGB mechanical keyboard that isn't too clacky. * Windows 10 Professional, so you can use Group Policy Editor.

Cons: * Included FSP 230W power adapter is very bulky. * Keyboard has a decent feel, but I'd prefer scissor-switch. * Occasional video flicker when using Firefox hardware acceleration, so I disabled that. The CPU is fast enough that there's no need to offload browser rendering to the GPU. * On the first day I was messing with things, the top-right area of the touch pad stopped working. Not sure if it was a software or hardware issue. Rebooting fixed it, and it's never happened again.

Overall Review: This LAPQC71B is the same basic machine as the Eluktronics MAG-15, the XPG Xenia 15, and a few others, but without any brand logo slapped on. You can buy a "slim style" Chicony 230W power adapter from Eluktronics if you want a smaller more portable charger for this laptop.

Pros: Surprisingly clean low bass for a subwoofer of this size, and the high frequencies are alright. It's very convenient having the power, volume, and bass controls on a speaker rather than having to reach down to the sub to adjust anything; you can safely tuck away the sub somewhere harder to access.

Cons: Something always feels missing from 2.1 systems compared to full-range conventional stereo, and the Z625 is no exception. The overall system manages to sound somewhat tinny despite good bass from the sub, which is likely a combination of missing lower-mid-range representation and tweeters housed in plastic. Also, some low frequencies sound more prominent than others, but I didn't do enough testing to rule out room resonance.

Overall Review: A solid choice if you are space constrained, but not an audiophile system.

Pros: Compatible with Windows 7 64-bit on H270 chipset. Very fast and not too expensive.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: Later CPUs are arbitrarily blocked from Windows Update by Microsoft, but this generation works fine.